FOUNDED in 1913, Islamia College Peshawar, now a chartered university, is celebrating its centenary. The occasion should be of great importance for the faculty members, students and alumni of this great seat of learning. However, ground situation in Islamia College is quite disappointing as its performance has been marred by grouping among the teachers and tussle between the administration and a group of faculty members, who claim that they are being victimised for no fault of their.

After its upgradation, the affairs of Islamia College were being run smoothly like any new university of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. However, the kidnapping of its first vice-chancellor, Prof Ajmal Khan, on Sept 7, 2010, by militants served a fatal blow to the newly-upgraded university and the journey of its decline began.

Three acting vice-chancellors, including the incumbent, failed to keep the university on track and run its affairs in a befitting manner. “Some controversial decisions by the administration and victimisation of opponents have increased the gulf between the teachers, who are virtually divided in ‘ruling’ and ‘opposition’ groups,” a source said.

He alleged that the ‘ruling’ group, having the patronage of the acting vice-chancellor, was victimising the members of ‘opposition’ group on one pretext or another.

Citing examples of the attitude of the ruling group, he said that for the first time in the history of Islamia College salaries of teachers had been withheld for the last few months. “When asked the administrative official concerned about withholding of the salary of a teacher, he said that his joining report was missing. Just imagine. Such a lame excuse is cited for withholding the salary of a teacher, who has served for more than a decade in Islamia College,” the source said.

The case of another teacher is more shocking. The teacher, who got a PhD from Cambridge University in physics, is being punished on the pretext that she attended the convocation for receiving the degree in 2007, few years later after completion of the degree.

On the other hand the members of ruling group were favoured in a blatant manner, sources said. They added that a member of the ruling group was promoted twice in a single meeting. First he was appointed as an administrative official then he was promoted as professor and then he, in the capacity of administrative official, appointed himself as chairman of a department.

Disappointed and annoyed by the attitude of the administration, the disgruntled teachers are moving courts for getting justice. “About 60 cases of Islamia College teachers are pending before different courts,” sources said.

Who is attending classes if teachers in such a large number are taking rounds of courts?

“There were always differences among the teachers but the same never turned into personal enmities. In the past, differences of opinions among the teachers and opposing colleagues in the elections of teachers union were healthy activities. But sadly now these differences have turned into personal enmities and many teachers are not at talking terms with each other,” said a another faculty member of ICU.

He said that moral deterioration at ICU and severity of the situation could be judged from the fact that recently an administrative official pulled out a pistol to threaten an arguing clerk.

The faculty member said that a chairman of a department had directed the peons against obeying the orders of one of his colleagues, who belonged to his opponent group. “Do you expect such childish behaviour from a civilised and educated person,” he questioned.

A senior teacher said that ICU needed immediate attention of government to prevent the situation from further deterioration. He said that the acting vice-chancellor was also vice-chancellor of another university and it was impossible for him to run the affairs of two universities at the same time. There should be a full-time vice-chancellor for ICU to streamline its affairs and improve the situation.

“Prof Khan Bahadur Marwat was relieved from the additional charge of acting vice-chancellor the next day when a single column news story was published about him working as vice-chancellor of two universities,” the teacher said, adding that he didn’t know why the chief minister kept pending the summary about removal of the acting vice-chancellor and appointment of Prof Adnan Sarwar as vice-chancellor of ICU.

Sources said that a summary was sent by the higher education department to chief minister about appointment of Prof Adnan Sarwar as vice-chancellor of ICU about three weeks ago. The chief minister neither returned the summary nor forwarded it after signing to the governor, the chancellor of all public sector universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Sources said that an MPA from Nowshera was influencing the decision of the higher education department and he was behind the delay in approval of the summary.

“The delay on the part of chief minister is fuelling resentment among the teachers,” the faculty member said. He said that being an outsider Prof Adnan was the best choice in the present circumstances as none of the groups of ICU teachers was ready to accept its rival as vice-chancellor.

“Perhaps the chief minister is waiting for a clash between the teachers to forward the summary,” he said, adding that PTI chief Imran Khan should also look into the issue.

“If such are affairs of a great seat of learning, what will be the situation in other educational institutions in the province? All this goes on despite the fact that PTI-led government has declared education emergency in the province,” the senior teacher said.